Welcome to the Diabetes Forum, Chawnie. Yes, with diabetes on both sides of your family, you are more likely to have blood sugar problems/diabetes, unfortunately. It's on my mom's side, too, so here I am...
I thought that doctors would try a diet and exercise approach first before putting a patient immediately on medication, but obviously some don't. I've read the reasoning for this is that they believe that most patients are not willing to make enough changes in their lifestyle to bring their blood sugar down naturally. Maybe this is something you can talk to the doctor about
but you would have to convince him/her that you are committed to controlling your blood sugar by changing what you're eating and doing regular exercise (if you're not already doing that).
about
the A1c and what's normal: A non-diabetic's blood sugar average would be in the mid-80's, equivalent to about
4.6 A1c. However, the American Diabetes Association says their target A1c is less than 7, which is less than 154; the AACE (American Assoc. of Clinical Endocrinologists) says their target A1c is less than 6.5 (140).
Studies and research show that blood sugar levels that consistently are above 140 are more likely to lead to diabetes complications such as heart disease, kidney failure, glaucoma, retinopathy, neuropathy, etc. According to this, the guidelines of the AACE are more reasonable than the ADA. But since diabetes is an individual disease, complications may be different with different people and it's hard to say exactly where the cut-off line is when complications start.
In my opinion, it's best to do what I can to keep my blood sugar as close to 'normal' as I can and I was able to do that for several years with only diet and exercise, but I haven't been able to keep up the rigor of exercise I started out with, so I'm on metformin now although I still eat very low carb.
Food: simply put, carbs keep blood sugar high. This means any food made with flour or sugar, potatoes, rice and any grain raise blood sugar. If you don't eat any of this food, your blood sugar will not rise. What you eat would be most any other vegetable and protein, some fruit in moderation.
Exercise like walking, running, biking, swimming, dancing (!) are good because they are sustained exercise which will help use up glucose in your system - and will help your heart and circulation, of course!
You can get more information from the two stickies at the top of our forum and from this website:
www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/.
So, if you want to see if you can control your blood sugar yourself and bring it lower with diet and exercise, then explain that to your doctor. Maybe you two can agree on trying this for six months. If not, metformin is usually the first medication prescribed. This helps the insulin your body produces do its job. Most likely you are insulin resistant, meaning your body is not allowing the insulin to work as it's supposed to.
I hope you can get this resolved. Do you have any questions? Advice is free here!
I'm glad you found us!
